Williams drivers regret lack of speed

"We don't seem to have the pace we need in qualifying," said Barrichello after finishing in a distant 15th position.

"We were stronger in Melbourne and so we need to analyse why and see where we are in the race.

"All things considered, my lap was OK, in fact it was probably one of my best laps around Malaysia but it wasn't good enough to counteract the performance of the car today. Whether we get rain or a steady run in a dry race we'll be going for points."

Team-mate Pastor Maldonado admitted he was surprised to not be able to make it into Q2, the Venezuelan finishing as 18th fastest.

"That was a difficult session and we definitely didn't expect to be out in Q1. The car wasn't feeling as good as it was this morning. I had a bit of traffic as well so I didn't get a clean lap.

"We have a lot of tyres now for tomorrow and the car goes better on long runs than it does in qualifying. With a good strategy who knows what will happen. There's no reason why we can't get into the points."